Ballarat's Dr Blake: an examination with creator George Adams

At the start of February, a 1950s period crime drama set in Ballarat - The Doctor Blake Mysteries - launched on ABC Television. By the end of the month, the murder mystery had become a surprise hit, and the ABC has commissioned a second season of the show.

The Scotland-born creator of the show, George Adams of December Media, has had a long career in television in the UK and now in Australia, and has had a few forays into film, most notably as the executive producer of the horror-hit set in the outback, Wolf Creek.

Adams says he's always been fascinated by the darker side of people.

"It might be the Scot in me, I don't know, I quite like the dark side of people, I'm quite attracted to it. I think it's very interesting from a character point of view to look at the sort of slightly shadier, darker side of what makes people people."

So why did he choose to set the series in Ballarat?

"About three years ago I was doing a job at Sovereign Hill and I found myself in Ballarat on and off for about eight or nine months in that year," he says.

"I was walking down Lydiard Street one night, it was winter, it was dark, it was cold and I thought, 'Gee, this is a really interesting environment to set a murder mystery series'.

"And then Tony Wright, who owns December Media, called me up about six months later and said, 'The ABC are looking for a murder mystery series, have you got anything?'

"And I said, 'Well, actually I do have this idea for a period detective show set in Ballarat."

Why did he choose to set it in the 1950s, and how important was the close attention to detail?

Adams chose to set the series in his birth year of 1959, because he thought it was an interesting time in recent history that hadn't really been explored before in television series.

It meant he could take advantage of the architecture of Lydiard Street, but also meant an enormous amount of research to ensure accuracy.

He says most of the time the team have got it right, but the viewers haven't always agreed.

"Sometimes people viewing the show get it wrong, as well. There was a huge discussion in social media about the use of foil covering a dinner that was waiting on the table.

"But actually, foil was being used commercially and domestically in 1959, so it was completely accurate."

The show has an authentic Ballarat flavour, with real events - such as the Begonia Festival - featuring in episodes, as well as hints at the Ballarat-Bendigo rivalry.

"One of the joys of using a real place is that you can bed a story in some form of reality that people remember, and indeed with the Begonia Festival it's still going on," he says.

"And to be perfectly honest we could never have made up something like a Begonia Festival and have people believe us."

Where did the characters come from?

Adams says he has some things in common with the star of the show - Doctor Lucien Blake. He has lived away from his birthplace for many years, and whenever he returns he feels a bit like a fish out of water.

"Nothing has changed, but everything has changed, and from that point of view that's kind of what Blake's come back into. He's come back to a place he knew and was born in, but he's not from there anymore.

"So he's trying to fit back into his home, which is a strange sensation."

He says other characters, like the housekeeper Jean Beazley, Chief Superintendent Matthew Lawson and local businessman Patrick Tyneman - played by John Woods - are based on people he has known and are characters of the time.

Meanwhile, the feisty young nurse in trousers, Mattie O'Brien, represents the changing times and circumstances for women.

"We were about to go into, you would argue, the biggest social changes since the 1910s, 1920s. Sexually and socially it was all about to change," he says.

"I thought it was important that we have at least one voice in there that showed us that was going to come around the corner."

So what's next for Doctor Blake?

Adams says the depth of the characters and the layered storylines give the writers a huge amount of scope as to where they go next.

"I've always had this thing that murder mysteries have to be really good, but the classic ones are the ones that have got great character stuff going on in them," he says.

"I think people are really interested to watch things unfold as they do in life. You don't get all the answers straight off the bat."

Adams says they'll start filming season two in winter, and there may be opportunities for people to appear as extras.

"A lot of people have mentioned the light in the show, and technically the grade in the show is quite dark. It was a deliberate thing, we did want it to be a little darker than people are used to seeing Australian drama.

"It gives you a real depth and a real different feel for Australia, which I really love, so we'll try always to shoot in winter, much to my crew's horror."